Number Portability, ENUM

BFX, the Number Portability Gateway
BFX provides a single, unified access point for Number Portability in the network. It enables centralized operations for service providers looking to streamline look-up access to number and address registries, for Mobile, Fixed and OTT services. BFX enables flexible integration and access to legacy and IP based Number Portability repositories, external as well as internal systems such as STP, CRM, UDR and other subscriber data sources.
BFX offers a wide range of functions and features to intelligently resolve number locations, routing destinations, as well as the ability to apply advanced routing intelligence, message enrichment, storing and caching of repeatedly accessed information, number mapping, mediation and normalization, multi-protocol interworking and more.

Connecting legacy and IP networks
Traditional SS7 networks route traffic by translating mobile telephone numbers into infrastructure point codes which define the destination. Typically, the INAP protocol is used for querying number portability information sources such as a Centralized Database (CDB) containing ported numbers.

ENUM is the recommended protocol developed by the IETF (RFC 6116) to provide a bridge between the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and the Internet. ENUM will also enable convergence across access technologies (fixed, mobile) and services (voice, data, video). In IP Interconnect, including IPX, the destination gateway Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) and IP addresses need to be established so ENUM can use the Internet DNS system to translate E.164 (i.e. plain) telephone numbers into IP addressing schemes (e.g. SIP, H323 and Email).

A central Number Portability gateway supporting INAP and ENUM, as well as various other Network and IT interfaces, provides an essential capability to service providers to cost-effectively connect legacy and IP domains, overcome interoperability issues and establish convergence across Mobile, Fixed and OTT services.

Number Portability Database (‘ENUM Server’)
BFX can act as a NP server for ENUM queries (lookups for NAPTR records), where the incoming ENUM requests can be forwarded to external data sources over any of the protocols BFX supports (e.g. ENUM, INAP, HTTP, …) or served from a local cache or local database of BFX. The BFX local cache / database stores number portability information based on a protocol-agnostic format. The BFX local cache / database is highly scalable and multi-node aware, using a distributed storage model.

Operator feedback

“The more I use BFX… the more I am liking it”
“Very good technology, I am impressed”
“Miles ahead of the competition”
“This is the best product, this is the next generation”
“Working with BroadForward is like a breath of fresh air”
“Our management is thrilled about the success of the migration”
“I really, really like your product”
“By far the most advanced and flexible DSC seen so far”
“Truly amazing functionality”
“Enabling DRA function in network in just a few hours”
“Don’t need any scripting”
“Really cool product”
“Winning product”
“Unique capability in our network”
“Amazingly powerful product”
“Designed to provide maximum agility”
“Remarkable new technology”
“You provide the glue”
“Structurally speeds up time-to-market for new services”

Analyst feedback

“BFX rated as Very Strong”
“We see BroadForward winning substantial business”
“This is a radical game changer”
“Solving the Diameter signaling conundrum”
“Central hub for service orchestration”
“It changes the dynamics of the industry”
“Solving pain points for operators that nobody else can solve”
“Well-positioned with their product”
“Designed to help CSPs ease the integration problems they face”
“This not only saves money, but critically speeds time to market”